Friday, June 26th, 2020
Booking a lane at the Y is increasingly turning into a trying experience. After being unable to book a lane for either Saturday or Sunday, I went online to book a lane for Monday at 13:55 today and signed in at 13:59, the minute the clock turn 14:00 I signed up for Monday, 14:00 just to find all slots taken. The same at 14:45 and 15:30. I finally succeeded with an indoor lane. Going to the Y today I did point out that the system seemed to be malfunctioning. Turns out people call in to book lanes and the call center has a an override function for the 72 hour waiting period, so people book with the call center before online booking opens and as soon as 72 hours are hit the call center bookings immediately fill up the slots, so online bookers have no chance. I do realize there may be people without internet or challenged to book online. I just need to think about mum to understand, but there must be a way to save spots for online booking and make call center lanes available. This has been recognized as a problem and hopefully the system will change next week.
Glad we did get our swim in today though, even if very late, but that was due to our plan to sail before swimming. And today was a magic day to be out on the water. Perfect wind, albeit a bit gusty, sunny, but not to hot with the odd cloud breaking the rays. We zipped across the water and fun, even if it is not real exercise.
The virus is exploding in the Sunbelt of the USA (Florida, Texas, Arizona, California) with over 40k new cases reported today to reach 2.51 million in total. The USA accounts for a little more than 25% of global infections which stand at 9.76 million today. The daily rate of reported new infections is about 2k higher every day than the previous day. Clearly the virus is not going away in the USA and the absence of leadership is helping it replicate, making the USA a pariah nation across the globe, no one wants anyone coming from here to enter their country, understandably so.
Sadly, this is precisely what I predicted in April is now happening. Because of the inability of the government to pursue one coordinated strategy, States who were stricter longer are doing well and are at an incredible risk of being set back by States that followed the lead of the moron in chief and quickly reopened. For all of us who have been observant of rules it means the situation is prolonged indefinitely and testing continues to be insufficient. Not only do all of us have to continue to be super vigilant, all of the USA is now considered undesirable by most of the rest of the world. The New York Times reported tonight that the EU will allow foreign travelers from dozens of countries to come as of July 1st, 2020 – The USA, like Russia is not on the “safe list” and travelers will be banned from entering the EU.
This is sad for us as it means we cannot see our family and given the US travel ban on Europeans is also still in effect, neither can they come to visit us; not that anyone in their right mind wants to come here that is. Even EM is frustrated with the evolution of the situation; so much so that she expressed regret over us ever moving here in the first place; stating we should have taken the alternative (which was Johannesburg). I had major concerns over security, but in hindsight, for many reasons it might well have been the better option. The politics are far saner, even if corruption is a big issue, the epidemic has been handled far better and certainly form a work perspective Washington could not have been a worse choice given policies of the current CEO. But then we did not know any of this was coming. We did know about security in South Africa and at the time keeping EM safe was my main concern. Also, had we not moved I would not have met my brilliant friend and I would not have embarked on my Aikido journey, which would have been a great loss; even if I have no idea when I can go back to practice. One day…
At any rate, Twitter is overflowing with comments, some are maliciously funny; the best being “the USA finally got its wall, all around the country with citizens locked-in”. As if the spreading pandemic in the USA is not enough, the Orange Cheeto is asking the Supreme Court to delegalize Obamacare in the midst of the biggest national health crisis this country has seen. If this attempt is successful, an additional 23 million Americans will lose their health insurance. I just do not understand how anyone, no matter how right wing can be so irresponsible towards an entire population. As always Heather Cox Richardson has a great analysis on the politics of the day picking up a theme I have been mulling over for a while, the American individualism, which in inherent in the social fabric of the US. One has to be brave to reside and make it in the land of the free. The only good news are reports of the virus is not mutating at a rapid rate, increasing the chances of a vaccine to be successful. Increasingly there is hope of a vaccine becoming available at the end of the year. Keeping my fingers crossed.
I had come across an article how UV light can be used to disinfect plans two days ago. This invention made seven years ago had not found much uptake as airlines considered it to costly but is now going to be implemented by those who disapproved seven years ago. Interestingly, I came across research today on the use of UV light as disinfectant. This could, combined with social distancing, improved ventilation and usage breaks make public spaces safe. For instance, offices and school rooms could be fitted with UV lights which would kill the virus and it would not be overly costly to install. Most interesting to me would be its application in dojos. I know a selfish thought, but I did share the article with the dojo cho as I know he has been researching air filtration and ventilation systems. As someone in love with the sun, I could absolutely do with UV light and would not be overly concerned with side effects, unless of course we all end up looking like agent orange.